Not a chance.
If they make Buerhle pitch 5th, he's bringing his dog to the park and letting him loose on Gibby.

Seriously though, Romero sucked so bad last season, he should be their automatic 5th starter. And you have to split up the lefties, so Buerhle therefore has to go 2nd or 3rd. I think Dickey and Morrow easily have 1 and 2 spoken for. That makes Buerhle the number 3 guy.

Looking at this a little closer, let's not forget...
Buehrle is a 4 time all star, 4 time gold glover, has a World Series ring, and just happens to also have a perfect game and another no-hitter on his resume. Yikes

No 1, 4, and 5 are locks, imho.

2 and 3 are tough, but because of the information above, I'm going to flip flop Buehrle and Morrow even though I already made a case for Morrow to be 2nd. I just don't think he would be too insulted to go 3rd after a Cy Young winner and a guy with Buehrle's track record.

Dickey
Buehrle
Morrow
Johnson
Romero

It's a lock. lol

When you have a loaded rotation, you are going to hurt someones feelings but after the rotation has gone through once, no one is the #1 starter or the #5 starter. You are simply in a rotation at that point. If someone is still considering themselves a number in the rotation, then they are simply being petty (then again, these are professional athletes so it's in their blood to be petty).

Just out of curiosity, last year in Miami, was Buerle ahead or behind Johnson in the rotation there? I didn't follow the Marlins much so I have no idea. Just wondering where he feels he is compared to Johnson already.

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10 Team, Points Only, $$ League, Keep 20/25 at seasons end
25 Man Roster, top 20 monthly point getters count
Goalie points W=2pt L=-1pt SHO=2pt

Stamkos, Tavares, Hall, Couture, Hanzal, Wheeler, Stastny, Versteeg, Fisher, Hornqvist, Eriksson, Hodgson, Setoguchi, Turris, Steen, Letang, DRoy, Yakupov, Grabner, Byfuglien, Baertschi

G-Rask, Halak, Schneider

Just for fun, here are my early predictions for the AL East. You guys probably know more about the teams than I do, so I'm curious how it'll pan out. I'll make an (non)educated guess that the spread from top to bottom won't be as wide as recent years:

1. Tampa 94-68
2. New York 91-71
3. Toronto 86-76
4. Baltimore 80-82
5. Boston 76-86

Feel free to bash me, Jays fans.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the Yankees finish last in the AL East this year.

__________________
10 Team, Points Only, $$ League, Keep 20/25 at seasons end
25 Man Roster, top 20 monthly point getters count
Goalie points W=2pt L=-1pt SHO=2pt

Stamkos, Tavares, Hall, Couture, Hanzal, Wheeler, Stastny, Versteeg, Fisher, Hornqvist, Eriksson, Hodgson, Setoguchi, Turris, Steen, Letang, DRoy, Yakupov, Grabner, Byfuglien, Baertschi

G-Rask, Halak, Schneider

It will be Tampa vs Toronto this year. The Yankees have way too many question marks (3rd base, Derek Eater, trade Granderson?) and don't seem to be willing to put in the money as they did in years past.

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12 Team Keeper (1 per position). Start two per forward position, 3 D, 1 Goalie, 1 Util
G=1.5, A=1, PPP/SHP=0.5, W=2, SO=3

C-Giroux, Backstrom
LW-Parise, Tanguay
RW-Ryan (lw), Purcell (lw), Parenteau, Iginla
D-Karlsson, Streit, OEL, Burns, Salo
G-Rask, Smith
Rookie- Galchenyuk, Granlund

I think that's somewhat close to what I would project. Although the Jays, on paper anyway, should be a little better than that. I also think Baltimore really overachieved last season and the Red Sox should definitely be better in 2013.

1. Toronto 93-69
2. Tampa 93-69
3. New York 89-73
4. Boston 82-80
5. Baltimore 78-84

If that's the way it pans out then this whole exercise will be classified as a disaster for the Jays and their fans.....so yeah, I'm going to strongly disagree with you. The Rays just gave up 300 IP from last years pitching staff! Make no mistake about it, losing Shields and Davis does not set them up well to make a run at it this year. T-bay is still a very strong club with a bright future but on paper they don't stack up with the current Jays roster so what are you basing 94 wins on? You don't give up a pitcher of Shields calibre without replacing him and somehow gain 4 wins.

The Jays should win the AL East next year. They're flawed, yes, but less so than the rest of the division (possibly except Tampa).

NYY has gotten a year older - if they trot out the same starting lineup as they did for most of last year, there won't be a single position player on the field younger than 30. Their pitching staff is also approaching ancient status and is showing signs of wearing down (even the workhorse Sabathia missed a few starts last year). With the Yankees not interested in spending money to cover up their flaws, they are vulnerable.

The Rays have an elite pitching staff, even with the loss of Shields and Davis, but there are some glaring holes in their lineup (Pena, Molina, Jennings) that make it really hard for Longoria and Zobrist to be effective. Wil Myers could help significantly, but that remains to be seen.

The Orioles are a complete wildcard. Everyone is calling their 2012 a fluke, but when you look at the numbers individual players put up, nothing really seems out of whack. Adam Jones was great. Everyone except Nick Markakis struck out a ton. Mark Reynolds, JJ Hardy, and Chris Davis were all power and (mostly) no contact. The starting pitching was a tick above average. The only curiosity is the effectiveness of their bullpen, which may or may not have been a fluke. It's entirely possible they replicate last year's success.

The Red Sox are irrelevant.

__________________
18 team league, keep 12 plus *4 1st/2nd year players (16 total)
Points Only (w/ NHL salaries), start 8F/4D/1G
Note: Defencemen receive 1 point per 45 mins of ice time.

Forwards:
Nash, Vanek, Couture, Berglund, Wheeler, Perron, P. Kane, *Baertschi, Semin, *Nyquist, *Atkinson, Tanguay, Cervenka

Defense:
Ehrhoff, Leddy, Voynov, *Orlov, Timonen, Postma, Brodin, Donovan

Goalie:
Halak, Dubnyk, Neuvirth

It wouldn't take too much in the way of internal improvement for that to happen. Simply getting a healthy Longoria (not a guarantee, of course) could be worth 3-4 extra wins. Then all you need is for each of the young pitchers (Matt Moore, Alex Cobb, Jeremy Hellickson) to bring you one or two more wins and suddenly you are ahead of the game.

There's also no discounting Joe Maddons' ability to make lemonade. For that reason alone you can't discount them.

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